Scholarly Sources

• written by researchers and subject experts.
• approved for publication by the process of peer review. This helps to ensure a high level of quality and academic rigor in the articles.
  
• written for other members of the academic discipline: researchers, professors, and students.
  
• purpose is to report research and scholarly ideas.
  
• include a bibliography, and in some disciplines (especially physical sciences and social sciences), will follow a strict structure that includes an abstract, research methodology, data, and a discussion of the results and implications of the research.
• usually published by university presses or professional organizations.

Popular Sources

• written by a journalist.
• written to be understandable to a wide audience using simple language.
  
• purpose is to entertain, to report news, or to summarize information.
• rarely include a bibliography, but sources may be mentioned by name within the article. (for example, "John Doe commented that...").
• published by a commercial publisher (for example, Barnes and Noble).
  
• usually have many advertisements and photographs.